King Kong

RATED: PG-13 for frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images.
RUNNING TIME: 187 MINUTES
PLOT: Documentary filmmaker Carl Denham sails off to remote Skull Island to film his latest epic with leading lady Ann Darrow. Native warriors kidnap Ann to use as a sacrifice as they summon Kong with the local witch doctor. But instead of devouring Ann, Kong saves her. The crew must then fight all of the beasts on the island to save Ann from Kong.
STARS: Naomi Watts (Ann Darrow), Jack Black (Carl Denham), Adrien Brody (Jack Driscoll), Thomas Kretschmann (Capt. Englehorn), Andy Serkis (Kong/Lumpy).

Gord Burt 5 Stars

Colour Godzilla green with envy.

The jaw-dropping, eye-popping, heart-racing epic everyone’s been waiting for since director Peter Jackson announced King Kong as his follow-up to his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy is finally here.

Unlike the big lizard, this wasn’t some hackneyed-new wave retelling of the classic. Jackson was amazingly faithful to the original movie (despite the new one being doubled in length), but greatly fleshes out events, adds new action scenes and significantly expands such signature sequences as Kong’s battle with the T-rexs and his iconic flight to the top of the Empire State Building. Jackson knows how to stage epic battles and you're thrown into the thick of it time and time again.

It’s almost impossible to successfully redo a genuine classic. It’s virtually never been done. Critics, fans and the movie-going-masses tend to loathe the presumption of it. Not only does Jackson recapture and enhance the subtle emotion of the original 1933 classic, but he one-ups the scenes that include Anne Darrow by expanding the character, and the wonderful Naomi Watts makes them much more poignant.

Three hours of monkey business is a long time for a primate pic, but the time passes quickly when the entertainment is so full, funny, and unexpectedly moving.

The new Kong is a virtuoso demonstration of the industry’s advances in computer animation. Kong himself (a motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis) is a triumph of digital technology, but its success lies less in its adrenaline-pumping action than the appeal and believability of its 25-foot, computer-animated silverback gorilla. He’s by far the most complex and believable CGI character ever created.

Jackson’s best move is the casting of three great leads. Adrien Brody is a good, understated hero. Jack Black is effective as comic relief (and yes he can act), and Watts, of course, Fay Wrays her way through the film admirably with her beautiful soul-searching eyes and mega-watts scream.

When you’re not marvelling at the sheer brilliance of Kong you’re either gasping or holding your breath during some of the best action sequences of the year that deliver the most eye-boggling, breathless movie thrill ride since Jurassic Park.

Yes, it’s indulgent at times, and the beginning’s a bit too long, but that just makes the payoff moments that much better.

Remakes just don’t get any more respectful, or inspired, than this.

Erin Harde 4 Stars

While the trailers for King Kong make this remake look incredibly cheesy, you can trust in Peter Jackson to hook you, reel you in and have you crying like a little girl by the end.

Like Lord of the Rings, Jackson makes this into a marathon at 187 minutes. Most of it goes quickly, but some scenes drag out needlessly or make you so tense, you just want them to be over. With the main character having a silent role, expect a lot of meaningful glances that go on forever.

The movie opens by showing what the New York entertainment scene looks like in the ‘30s from theatre to Vaudeville. Naomi Watts’ scenes in drag come into play on Skull Island, where she makes her sudden and unexpected movie debut after meeting producer Carl Denham. Comedian Jack Black takes on this role and makes this character the most sleazy, loathsome little man ever to tarnish the industry. He lies, manipulates and even sacrifices his crew to make his picture. He’s wonderfully horrible and definitely shows a new side of his repertoire.

At Skull Island, the location for his picture, there are primitive creatures of all types- savage natives, dinosaurs, giant cockroaches and spiders, and of course, Kong. Of all the creatures, Kong is the least frightening, perhaps because he’s been parodied for so long that it’s hard to be scared of him. However, the other monsters will take your breath away, especially the scene where the crew is running beneath the brontosauruses who are running from the raptors, several of them (people and dinos) being stomped to death along the way. Kong seems menacing until he softens when the captured Ann Darrow does her Vaudeville routine. Kong is adorable from that point on, like a really big house cat.

The effects, needless to day, are stunning. It helps that Kong was created much like Gollum was for LOTR, with a real person behind all of the movements and facial expressions. Kong’s big, sad monkey eyes look so real they’ll rip your heart out.

The movie ends on the depressing note you know is coming, but worst of all Jackson rubs salt in the wound by giving Denham, upon which the whole debacle lies, the last line of the movie, like he’s some kind of philosopher, when all he deserves is to be lunchmeat for Kong.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

RATED: PG for battle sequences and frightening moments.
RUNNING TIME: 140 MINUTES
PLOT: At a rural country home of an elderly professor, four children discover a charming, peaceful land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants that has become a world cursed to eternal winter by an evil white witch. Under the guidance of King Aslan, the children fight to overcome the witch's powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular, climactic battle that will free Narnia from her icy spell forever.
STARS: Georgie Henley (Lucy), Skandar Keynes (Edmund), William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), Tilda Swinton (White Witch), James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus), Liam Neeson (Voice of Aslan).

Gord Burt 4.5 Stars

Lions and tigers and talking beavers, oh my!

Chronicles of Narnia is an engaging and exciting family film that at times feels a bit like The Lord of the Rings Jr. Its epic scope and elaborate battles will raise comparisons with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, though the clashes are much less violent.

The movie will delight both young and old. There’s an escape from evil wolves through a tunnel, a chase across a frozen lake and a wild ice-flow trip down rapids. For the climactic battle, the filmmakers throw in all the creatures and animals in the book: from centaurs of Greek mythology to bears, leopards, tigers, ogres, giants and dwarfs.

Narnia may sound like the stuff of cute fairy tales, but it’s really a place of holy war, where the imagination darkens the more it expands. The movie creates a different kind of spectacle than Lord of the Rings, or at least a different kind of crusade.

The movie remains faithful to author C.S. Lewis’s story, and the innocence of his fables shines through. It’s there, most spectacularly, in Aslan, the lion-king messiah. As the children journey deeper into Narnia, the movie’s scope widens and its dramatic intensity grows, a transition from the intimacy of the house where the children are staying to the grandeur of Narnia.

Much has been made of the film’s Christian subtext, but the movie is first and foremost an action-adventure so don’t think you’ll get preached to all movie. Adults may notice the messages, but it should go over children’s heads as they are awed by the sheer majesty of everything in Narnia.

The computer-generated characters are beautifully realized and enhanced by the actors lending their voices. The photo-realism of the thousands of creatures and their amazingly organic movements, especially when mixed in with actual locations and real actors, is a remarkable
achievement. The use of available technology helps to capture both the mythic power of Lewis’s tale and, even better, its charm.

The cast is wonderful, but Georgie Henley, who plays Lucy (the youngest of the children and the first to discover Narnia) stands out. She is both sweet and indomitable, with a wide smile and an adorable accent. She would melt ice on the coldest day. When she cries you want to cry with her and when her wide smile is shining you can’t help but smile too.

Erin Harde 4 Stars

Here’s a movie, which, if not done right, could destroy the fantasies of legions of C.S. Lewis fans who devoured the Chronicles of Narnia and worshipped its hero Aslan, as if he were Christ himself.

So, for fans of the book, there’s a lot riding on this film. And so many things could go wrong, but for the most part, the creators pull it off. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a gorgeous movie from its snow covered woods to the talking to the animals and even to the white witch. Tilda Swinton, though not beautiful, is stunning and terrifying here as the queen of Narnia.

For the uninitiated, all of the creatures in Narnia talk. Most charming are Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who help the children through the forest to safety. The characters mostly stick to Lewis’s lines, but there is the occasional joke thrown in to make it a little more contemporary, and the beavers pull off some good one-liners. They also speak often of Narnia’s true king, the lion Aslan. There are few regular humans in the show, most of them being the four children, who are all well chosen, especially for the fact they aren’t superstar child actors. They are all fresh faces, perfect to play Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy.

In truth, all is perfect with Narnia until the great Aslan makes his first appearnace on screen. Even if you haven’t read the books, there is so much build up to this moment that you will expect great things from him, what with all of the characters talking about how Aslan will save them and Narnia, and destroy the white witch.

And there Aslan is, in all his magnificent glory. Just as the book indicated, his mane is so thick and full that you just want to touch it and wrap your arms around him. And then he speaks and much of the magic suddenly goes out of the film. You see, somehow Liam Neeson got stuck in Aslan’s throat, or at least it’s hard not think of such a thing during all of Aslan’s lines. Surely Lewis didn’t imagine his great beast having the gentle, refined tones of a well-known Irish actor?

Sadly, this move to give Aslan a famous voice reminds us that it’s just a movie; there is no Narnia and Aslan is but a drawing. So to get a little taste of Narnia and still leave your imagination in tact, sneak out before Neeson’s Aslan speaks and wakes you up from the whole beautiful dream.

Walk the Line

RATED: PG-13 for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency.
RUNNING TIME: 136 MINUTES
PLOT: Walk the Line tells the story of country music Johnny Cash and his rise to stardom. While Cash was working on making it in the industry, he was also falling in love with southern sweetheart June Carter. Despite the odds and a lot of hard times, Cash wins over June and lands a life-long singing career as the man in black.

STARS: Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash), Reese Witherspoon (June Carter), Ginnifer Goodwin (Vivian Cash), Robert Patrick (Ray Cash), Shelby Lynne (Carrie Cash).

Gord Burt 4.5 Stars

Walk the Line isn’t just a basic movie about the life of Johnny Cash; it’s about the love of Cash’s life. His two grand passions were music and singer June Carter whom he courted for 13 years before marrying her.

No movie could hope to contain the legend that was Cash. Sadly, the limitation of this medium is that you can’t fit everything that made Johnny Cash great into 136 minutes. Instead, we get a tribute to what Cash held so dear to himself about his own life: his triumph over his demons and the love of the greatest woman he ever knew. It may sound like the makings of a country ballad, but this simple, often sweet film, definitely does the legend’s tale justice.

A young Cash knows he doesn’t want to be a door-to-door salesman and manages to get an audition for Sam Phillips at Sun Records, the Memphis studio known for discovering Elvis. Joaquin Phoenix lets it all go in his breakout scene, re-creating Get Rhythm, one of Cash’s signature tunes, that ignites his career. From there we are treated to a series of lively concerts where Cash tours with Elvis, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings (played by his son Shooter) and Jerry Lee Lewis. It’s on the road that Johnny meets June.

The brilliant performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon really keep this film from falling into formula. Phoenix was approved by Cash himself and intensely channels the country star’s singing voice and mannerisms while Witherspoon’s June just lights up the screen with all the warmth, humour, and strength this amazing woman was famous for.

It’s not just that the two stars credibly do their own singing (going one up on Jamie Foxx’s Ray) they also stay true to the heart and love of their characters. The movie is based on two of Cash’s books: Man in Black and Cash: The Autobiography, and benefits by focussing on the young Johnny and June.

The movie starts and ends in 1968 with Cash giving his landmark concert at California’s Folsom Prison with June by his side as she would be until they died within four months of each other in 2003 ending a truly remarkable love story.

Erin Harde 4.5 stars

It turns out all the hype about Walk the Line being good enough to land a few Academy Awards isn’t just hype. And you can count on the movie’s stars to win big at the Oscars.

Witherspoon especially shines as June Carter. Better known for her sunny roles in Legally Blonde and Alabama, she’s definitely not a perky blonde here. Though chipper on the outside, backstage Carter deals with an ugly divorce, oft drunken tourmates (if the movie is an accurate interpretation) and an infatuated Johnny Cash, who doesn’t take no for an answer. Carter claims she wasn’t the best singer in her family and so developed a sense of humour to make up for her voice, but Witherspoon’s Carter can belt out a country tune with the best of them.

Phoenix also sings in the movie, and if you’re not a die-hard Cash fan, Ring of Fire and Walk the Line will sound pretty close to what you remember hearing on your grandpa’s record player. But even Cash devotees aren’t going to be disappointed, especially as the entire movie is a tribute to the man in black. Phoenix’s performance is impressive, but it’s not as much of a feat for him as Carter is for Witherspoon. Phoenix often plays the dark, brooding hero or anti-hero, and he appears that way in the real world as well.

Like Ray, this biography tells an interesting rags to riches kind of story. J.R., as John was known as a kid, was the son his father wished had died instead of John’s big brother. Cash carries this burden with him the rest of his life. He grows up, marries, starts a family and does a little guitar picking as a hobby. But when he can’t pay the rent, he marches up to Sun Records and demands that Sam Phillips listen to his music. Just like that, he lands a record, but the hard times just get going with this success. Cash goes through a divorce, struggles with a drug addiction, and gets rejected dozens of times after asking June to marry him. It’s a great story, with lots of humour and romance along the way.

It’s a good bet Walk the Line will have long-time Cash fans swimming in nostalgia, while making fans out of a whole new generation.